Freight container



Feb. 2,' 1937. B, F, FITCH 2,069,234

FREIGHT CONTAINER Original Filed Sept. 19, 1933 2 Sheets-Sheet l Feb. 2, 1937.

B. F. FITCH FREIGHT CONTAINER Original Filed Sept. 19, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 tion is especially concerned with the roof con-- Patented Feb. 2, 1937 PATENT OFFICE FREIGHT CONTAINER Benjamin F. Fitch, Greenwich, Conn, assignor to Motor Terminals Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Original application September 19, 1933, Serial No. 690,104. Divided and this application May 3, 1934, Serial No'. 723,661

8 Claims.

This invention relates to a freight container and is a division of my copending application Serial No. 690,104, filed September 19th, 1933, on a Demountable body. The present invenstruction of the freight container.

A system of handling package freight by means of demountable bodies which may be carried on highway trucks or on vessels and lifted intact with their loads to a railway car for intermediate rail transportation, and thereafter transferred at the distant end to a truck or vessel for ultimate delivery, has many advantages, reducing the cost of shipping from consignor to .15 consignee, reducing the time involved, and re- 25 particularly in the vicinity of the roof where lateral strains are likely to occur.

is the general object of my invention to provide a demountable and readily transferable body which shall comprise the desired charac- 30 :teristics of strength, stiffness, lightness and proper ventilation.

It is, of course, :necessary to provide means for removing the body from the railway car, truck or vessel transporting it, or from a loading plat- 35 form, and a crane system having depending raising members adapted to engage body books, or suspending a cradle which has shackles to engage such hooks, is an-efiective means for handling the body. The hooks, to be readily en- 40 gageable by the crane lift members or the cradle shackles, project above the top edges or caves of the body. An improved form of body hook is shown, described and claimed in my copending application, heretofore mentioned, and hence will not be described in detail herein.

'If the lifting members exert any lateral stress on the body it is important that it be braced transversely, and these same braces may constitute roof beams for supporting a light roof. A feature of the present invention which materially improves the body and contributes to its lightness as well as strength is to make lateral bracing roof beams in the form of trough-shaped 55 members, which are effectively reinforced adjacent their ends by stirrups which embrace them, and are firmly secured to the bent-over eave plates of the body and to the roof itself.

The roof proper is preferably made of corrugated metal with the length of the valleys and ridges of the corrugations extending transversely of the body. I avail myself of the cheapness and ventilation provision resulting from the corrugated roof without danger of ingress of water or dirt at the eaves by filling those corrugations between the roof metal and the inward flange of the cave plate with sufiiciently packed fibrous material to prevent access from the outside, while leaving sufficient ventilation from the interior. I find mineral wool is very satisfactory for this purpose.

As will be understood from the above outline, my invention comprises a demountable body having the improved construction of the roof adjacent the eaves, all as hereinafter more fully described in connection with the drawings, which illustrate a preferred embodiment thereof.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a railway flat car on which two of my demountable bodies have been placed; Figs. 2 and 3 are vertical sections illustrating the roof construction adjacent the eaves, the section planes being indicated by the line 2-2 on Fig. 1 and line 3-3 on Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a fragmentary end elevation of a body, showing the reinforced top construction; Fig. 5 is a sectional view at the top of the body, as indicated by the line 5-5 on Fig. 4.

Referring to Fig. 1, A represents a railroad fiat car, having demountable bodies B placed thereon. These bodies B have hooks I5, which furnish a means of engagement by a suitable crane to remove the body from the car.

The hooks I5 are secured to side walls I6 of the body and to vertically extending reinforcing members II which carry the load stresses from the floor frame to the hook. In addition to the vertical members I1, diagonal bracing members I8 are welded, riveted-or otherwise secured to the side plates l6 and to angle shaped cave plates 20, to which the upper end of the side plates, the reinforcing member I! and the hooks I5 are secured. Such a construction frees the side plates from much of the lifting strains. thereby providing a rigid body structure.

To support the roof, as well as to brace the body laterally, I provide a series of transversely extending roof beams I9, which, in-this disclosure, are welded to the longitudinally extending eaveplate or angles 20, which, in turn, are fastened to their respective sides It. These roof beams are upwardly facing channels having edge flanges, and in conjunction with angles 2i], carry the corrugated roofing which comprises the top 21, which, in turn, is surmounted by longitudinal protection strips 22, preferably of wood. Bolts 23 extend through the strips 22 adjacent the eaves, and through the corrugated roofing. the angle 20 and the beams l9, and hold these members firmly together by virtue of nuts 2d and lock washers 25.

To prevent the channel beams l9 from being deformed when the nut 2% is tightened, I provide a heavy stirrup piece 26 embracing the channel it in the region of the bolt 23. This stirrup section 26 fits over channel H9 in such a way that upon first turning the nut 24, the channel l9 may be snugly drawn against the angle 20, and then before any material distortion of channel 19 begins to take place, the flange 21 of the reinforcing stirrup 26 comes snugly against the channel beam flanges which bear against the eave plate '28. The stirrup thus receives any further stresses induced by tightening nuts 24.

Referring to Fig. 5, the roofing 2| will be seen to overlap the end angle 30 and to have a downward flange 3! bearing against its vertical face. A batten 32 is placed on the outside of member 31 to provide a flrm seat for the rivet 33 which holds the overlapped roofing and the end firmly together. An additional row of rivets 34 aids in more firmly fastening the angle 30 to the end sheet 35. The roofing 2i is further secured to the flange 30 of the end angle by bolts similar to those shown in Fig. 5 and designated 35 and carrying lock washers 3? and nuts 38 at their lower ends.

In addition to the two protection strips 22, adjacent the eaves, I prefer to provide a similar strip 5% at the center, as illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5. At the end this member is secured in the same manner as the members 22, while intermediately it is secured in a manner similar to the members 22; that is to say, the stirrups 2E and bolts 23 like those heretofore described are provided, the action being the same except that the stirrup in this case clamps the flanges of the roof beam [9 directly against the roof itself.

When the bodies are in motion, wind at a considerable velocity passes the body and creates suction under the crowns of the corrugated roofing. This suction tends to lower the air pressure within the body, as compared with that outside and this causes water present on the outside adjacent any cracks, as at door jambs for instance, to be drawn inwardly. To retard the air flow at the effective openings caused by the corrugations in the roof, where this roofing rests upon the angles 26 at the sides of the body, sufficiently to prevent the troublesome action, without destroying the ventilating effect, I employ flow restricting packing material 5i} shown in Figs. 2 and 3. This material, as shown, is of capillary form and is packed into the pockets formed by the downwardly extending channels of the corrugations on the top and the angle member 26 on the bottom. It is preferable to employ non-inflammable material for this purpose, and I find that mineral Wool is very satisfactory. This packing, of course, is placed in all of the openings thus formed along both sides of the body.

It will be seen from my disclosure that I have materially improved demountable bodies intended for transfer between different vehicles. Thus, I have provided an effective seal at the point where the corrugated roofing meets the sides without disturbing the existing ventilation effect. In addition to this, various means of bracing the body have been presented, which aid in reducing the weight thereof while retaining the required strength.

I claim:

1. In a demountable freight container, having ends, a roof and roof braces terminating adjacent said ends, means for fastening the roof tosaid ends comprising an angle piece riveted to each end and bolted to the roof portion and the roof braces, together with a part of the roof portion overlapping the outer face of said end, and the vertical part of the angle piece and the end portion and the overlapping roof portion being riveted together.

2. In a demountable freight container, the combination of a continuous roof, channel-shaped transverse roof beams underlying said roof, stirrup members embracing said roof beams to prevent their distortion, and means for suspending the stirrup members from the roof.

3. In a demountable freight container, the combination of a roof, transverse supporting beams, stirrup members embracing said beams, and bolts passing through the roof, beams and stirrup members.

4. In a demountable freight container, the combination of body sides having eave plates with inwardly extending flanges, a roof comprising corrugated sheet metal resting on said flanges, transverse roof beams extending at their ends beneath said flanges and intermediately supporting the roof, stirrups embracing said roof beams beneath the flanges, and means for causing the stirrups to clamp the roof beams against the flanges.

, 5. In a demountable freight container, the combination of body sides having at their upper ends eave plates, which have inwardly extending flanges, a roof resting on said flanges, transverse roof beams extending with their end portions beneath the flanges and intermediately supporting the roof, said roof beams comprising upwardly facing channels with outwardly extending edge flanges, U-shaped stirrups with outwardly extending edge flanges embracing the roof beams beneath the eave plate flanges, and bolts each passing through the. roof, the eave plate flange, the roof beam, and the stirrup to effectively clamp the roof beam against the underside of the eave plate flange.

6. The combination in a demountable body of side walls, longitudinal eave plates with vertical flanges secured to and forming part of the side walls and with inturned flanges adjacent the top of the side walls, said inturned flanges being disposed at an acute angle to the horizontal and thereby providing a drainage surface toward the outside, corrugated roof sheets with the length of their valleys and ridges extending transverselyof said body and resting on the top of said inturned flanges in such manner that the end portions of said roof sheets periodically engage said inturned flanges to provide ventilation openings, and transverse roof beams extending for a material dis-' tance beneath said inturned flanges and'secured thereto and tying the sides together and supporting the roof.

'7. The combination in a demountable body of side walls, longitudinal eave plates with inturned flanges adjacent the top of the side Walls, said inturned flanges being disposed at an acute angle to the horizontal and thereby providing a drainage surface toward the outside, transverse roof beams engaging the undersurface of said inturned flanges and secured thereto, corrugated roof sheets with the length of their valleys and ridges extending transversely of said body and periodically resting on the top of said inturned flanges to provide ventilation openings bounded by the roof sheets and said inturned flange, longitudinal protecting strips over the end portions of the corrugated roof sheets, and members passing through the protecting strips, roof sheets and inturned flanges for securing all of such parts together.

8. A demountable freight container body having side walls, longitudinal eave plates having vertical flanges secured to the side walls and inwardly directed flanges substantially coextensive longitudinally with the plates, transverse flanged roof beams having end portions extending material distances in face to face contact with the undersides of the inwardly directed flanges, and a roof overlying the roof beams and both inwardly directed flanges, the roof, said inwardly directed flanges and the underlying ends of the roof beams being secured rigidly together.

BENJAMIN F. FITCH. 

